http://hdl.handle.net/10150/595873 Sat, 07 Mar 2026 22:04:28 GMT 2026-03-07T22:04:28Z http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679732 Digitally Branded: The Developmental Catastrophe of Juvenile Sex Offender Registries Walker, Tammi Juvenile sex offender registration was never a natural fit for the youth justice system, but in the digital age, it has become deeply harmful. What began as a paper-based precaution has evolved into a sprawling digital regime that permanently brands adolescents at the most formative stage of life. This article examines how technological change has turned registration into a publicly searchable network of stigma—amplified by data aggregators, search engines, neighborhood apps, and real estate platforms—that makes youthful misbehavior both permanent and inescapable. Drawing on insights from developmental neuroscience and criminology, the article explains why adolescent sexual misconduct is often impulsive, peer-driven, and rarely predictive of future offending. Yet federal mandates like the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) continue to impose offense-based registration on youth as young as fourteen, ignoring evidence about adolescent development and undermining the juvenile justice system’s rehabilitative aims. The modern registry’s reach imposes novel harms that traditional legal frameworks have not fully addressed. Public access fuels ongoing exclusion, identity foreclosure, and algorithmic discrimination, locking youth into stigmatized identities and exacerbating racial and socioeconomic disparities. These harms ripple outward to destabilize families and communities. Empirical research confirms that juvenile sexual recidivism is rare and that registration fails to improve public safety. Instead, it misallocates resources and inflicts long-term damage. This article urges a rethinking of juvenile registration policies, calling for reforms grounded in developmental science, technological awareness, and evidence-based alternatives such as confidential monitoring, risk-based assessments, and therapeutic intervention. Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679732 2026-02-16T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679726 Water Governance, Stakeholder Engagement, and Sustainable Water Resources Management Megdal, Sharon; Eden, Susanna; Shamir, Eylon Water governance and stakeholder engagement are receiving research attention for their role in formulating and implementing solutions to the world’s critical water challenges. The inspiration for this Special Issue came from our desire to provide a platform for sharing results and informing the global water governance community about the wealth of excellent interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and projects being carried out around the world. The 20 peer-reviewed papers collected in this Special Issue have been grouped into three categories: stakeholder engagement, tools for building water management and governance capacity, and perspectives on water management and governance. Following a brief summary of the papers, concluding remarks that reflect on what the papers, taken as a whole, contribute to our understanding are provided. Mon, 06 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679726 2017-03-06T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679725 Critical Issues Affecting Groundwater Quality Governance and Management in the United States Petersen-Perlman, Jacob D.; Megdal, Sharon B.; Gerlak, Andrea K.; Wireman, Mike; Zuniga-Teran, Adriana A.; Varady, Robert G. Groundwater is increasingly important for meeting water demand across the United States (U.S.). Forward thinking governance and effective management are necessary for its sustainable use. In the U.S., state governments are primarily responsible for groundwater governance (i.e., making laws, policies, and regulations) and management (i.e., implementation of laws, policies, and regulations). This decentralized system results in diverse strategies and practices. We surveyed a water quality professional from each state to better understand commonalities and differences across states. These professionals identify a wide assortment of groundwater issues and concerns, including quality and quantity impairment, staffing and budget issues, private well vulnerability, and overdraft. Respondents indicate contamination problems from natural and anthropogenic sources. Most respondents report that their states have significantly changed groundwater quality policy during the past 30 years. While most states have multiple funding sources for water quality programs, program budgets have decreased in the last decade, thereby hindering effective implementation of new policies. Over half of respondents indicate that water-quality/water-level monitoring and increased groundwater pumping will require more attention over the next decade. Several respondents anticipate groundwater regulation changes in the next five years. We discuss how our findings align with current groundwater uses in the U.S. Tue, 05 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679725 2018-06-05T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679723 Findings and lessons learned from the assessment of the Mexico-United States transboundary San Pedro and Santa Cruz aquifers: The utility of social science in applied hydrologic research Callegary, J.B.; Megdal, S.B.; Tapia Villaseñor, E.M.; Petersen-Perlman, J.D.; Minjárez Sosa, I.; Monreal, R.; Gray, F.; Grijalva Noriega, F. Study Region This study region encompasses the Transboundary San Pedro and Santa Cruz aquifers which are shared between the states of Sonora (Mexico) and Arizona (US). Special regional considerations include a semi-arid climate, basin-fill aquifers with predominantly montane recharge areas, economic drivers in the mining, trade, and military sectors, groundwater-dependent cities with expanding cones of depression, interbasin groundwater transfers, ground- and surface-water contamination, and protected aquatic and riparian habitats that act as significant migration corridors for hundreds of species, including some that are threatened and endangered. Study Focus We focus on lessons learned from the hydrologic assessment of the Transboundary San Pedro and Santa Cruz aquifers. We conducted the work, in two phases: (1) laying the groundwork and (2) implementation. The “laying the groundwork” phase consisted of binational meetings with stakeholders and key actors (agencies and individuals), and the development of an understanding of the physical, institutional, historical, and socio-political context. This led to signing of the binational Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (TAAP) agreement in 2009 and detailed the process for cooperation and coordination in the assessment of shared aquifers. The implementation phase began with an agreement to proceed with the study of four “focus” aquifers (Santa Cruz, San Pedro, Mesilla (Conejos-Médanos in Mexico), and Hueco Bolson (Bolsón del Hueco in Mexico)) and development of associated technical teams. Though we do include a brief discussion of the lessons learned from the physical science portion of the study, the results have been described and published elsewhere. The bulk of the paper instead focuses on the findings and lessons learned from the integration of social-science perspectives into a largely physical-science based program, since there is a growing recognition of the need for this type of approach especially in the management and assessment of transboundary aquifers. New Hydrological Insights for the Region The Sonora-Arizona effort succeeded because both countries were adequately represented, and because of flexibility of skills and ability of teams comprising both university and government scientists. Teams included social and earth scientists. Including the social sciences was critical to research design and implementation, and to addressing the cultural, institutional, and socio-political contexts of transboundary aquifer assessment. Significant components of the continuing implementation phase include strategic planning, data compilation and analysis, cross-border integration of datasets, geophysical and geochemical surveys, and internal, peer, and stakeholder engagement. Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679723 2018-12-01T00:00:00Z